Meeting Standards and Reaching Goals – Megan Smith

During this past year I took a break from my degree of Recreation and Heath Education and decided to apply for a co-op position as a front desk assistant at a private gym. This position involved greeting members, answering the phone and presenting membership options. From the surface these tasks seemed easy, but once the initial training week was over, I felt the pressure to meet standards.

I took a step back after a few weeks at this new job and evaluated what I liked and didn’t like about it. I loved helping people verbalize their fitness goals and suggesting strategies on how they could reach them.  But, despite the aspects of the job that I loved, like goal setting, I still disliked the pressure of having to meet standards.

When someone goes to a gym, he or she often has a fitness goal in mind, something they are making thoughtful steps and choices towards reaching. Not once did I have someone come into the gym saying, “I would like to reach this standard.” A goal can be something personal and can have checkpoints that make you feel a sense of pride or happiness when you reach them. Where as when you fall short of meeting a standard you are often left feeling disappointed and discouraged.

I am someone who finds goal setting really important.  I find if I write down my goals I am more likely to achieve them. Goals can be large or small and can be broken down into steps. For example, this past semester I took a systemic physiology class.  I took a similar class last year and I knew I was going to struggle with it.  I wrote down the letter grade I wanted to get in the class. I am not someone who is super “grade” focused, but I knew if I didn’t have a goal in mind for this class I wouldn’t give it much priority. My first step was to write down all the things I could do to help me achieve my letter grade goal. These included staying on top of the course readings, doing all the optional assignments, meeting with my teacher regularly to go over confusing material and getting a tutor. Establishing steps was a great way to help me achieve my goal. I also found my self planning my study time better and really taking time to learn the material rather then just memorize it.  Thanks to all my planning and hard work, this goal was achieved and I felt as though I learned a lot about the course and benefits of goal setting in the process.

So with all that being said, this job and other experiences in my life have taught me a lot about the importance of setting goals and the value of breaking down your goals into steps you feel like you can achieve, while still feeling challenged.  It also confirmed the importance of not wasting time trying to meet other people’s standards.